The fur-friendly "Harrod's" department store in London
has begun carrying the 100-garment faux-fur collection created by Oleg
Cassini. So much do they like Cassini's fake fur, that they built a
special in-store display to feature these garments (more store space for
fake fur means less store space for real fur, but it still promotes the
look of fur as being fashionable -- a good reason to avoid fake fur as
well. - JM).

* * * * *
Congressperson Thomas E. Petri of Wisconsin seems to be in the pockets
of the factory fur Farming industry. At a recent "Safe Farms" rally held
in Wisconsin to support the recently ALF raided fur farms, Mr. Petri
showed his allegiance to this morally bankrupt industry by making the
following quote:

* * * * *
Trappers are urging each other to begin trapping a little bit into the
season and not "burst out of the gate" on opening day. Since prices for
the furs of trapped animals are low, local fur buyers are interested in
only the highest quality skins. When animals are caught too early in the
season, their pelts are not "prime." Tens of thousands of raccoon pelts
and hundreds of thousands of muskrat pelts remain unsold from previous
seasons since there is virtually no market for anything other than
top-quality skins.

Of the few people in the United States who still buy
fur, most of them are interested in factory-farm raised mink, not
trapped mink. Even with America's preference for factory-farmed mink
furs, factory-farmers are planning to cut down on the number of animals
they breed and kill. Currently, there are more animals killed than there
is demand for their fur. This drives prices way down to the point where
factory-farmers are unable to meet production costs when they sell the
pelts at auction.

Source: Trapper and Predator Caller October 1999

* * * * *
New York's last remaining dressing plant, Meisel-Peskin, has closed its
doors after nearly 70 years in business. This could hurt the fur
business in New York and elsewhere if business begins to pick up. The
only other dresser in the area is Tubari of Passaic, NJ.

The mid-year total for imports of fur apparel into the
US is 10% below this same point of last year. Despite the increased
coverage of fur in the fashion press, US consumers are still shying away
from fur.

Source: Sandy Parker Reports 9/6/99

* * * * *
Pelts sold at European auctions have been receiving slightly higher
prices than in the past few seasons. These increases could have a
negative effect in the New York trimmings trade. Trim makers are said to
be light on fur supplies and therefore are unable to produce much at the
lower prices they quoted to their customers earlier. The garment
producers may either have to pay more for the trimmings or accept
lesser-quality skins at the same cost. This is leaving a sour taste in
the mouths of the manufacturers and could be a bigger problem with fox
trim rather than mink trim, considering the greater increases in the
prices of fox pelts overseas. In some cases, the prices paid for select
bluefox had increased 50% over last year's prices.

Source: Sandy Parker Reports 9/13/99

* * * * *
Three creditors of Evans, Inc. recently filed an involuntary liquidation
petition against the company. In doing so, they prevented Evans from
selling its six Chicago-based stores and then filing chapter 11. Evans'
creditors feared Evans planned to sell the stores to its own recently
departed president and CEO at an advantageous price, then immediately
declare bankruptcy. This move would have left the company with fewer
assets to allocate to debts owed suppliers. Evans owes the creditors
that filed the petition against Evans a total of $1,544,183.

Source: Furs.com 9/29/99

* * * * *
Skin prices in general are well below "production costs." This is
causing fur factory farmers to reduce the number of animals they have on
their ranches. Early projections are that next year will see 15% fewer
mink killed. This would bring the world total to fewer than 24 million
-- lower than it has been in a long time. The number of ranched foxes
will also fall (Finland - the world's largest fox farming nation -- will
reportedly reduce the number of foxes raised in that country by 30%),
while the trapping of animals will reach new lows because of severely
depressed prices.

Source: Sandy Parker Reports 9/20/99

* * * * *
Though retail sales for the first 8 months of 1999 have been slightly
above that of the same period last year, furriers are not very
encouraged. Another bad fur season sales wise would easily knock out any
modest increases that have been seen so far. It is not that furs have
been selling well this year, it is just that the sales figures are ahead
of last year'' -- one of the worst pre-season years in the history of
the modern fur trade. Furriers are still looking to the winter
fur-selling season to earn their living.

To guard against another dismal sales year, many
furriers are venturing into larger offerings of fur trimmed garments.
Leather, shearling, and fur-trimmed wool are being featured in the
windows of many upscale furriers in New York City. The furriers who are
doing well moving merchandise so far have been those who are conducting
"Going out of business" sales and selling their wares at steep
discounts.

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